Talia Pinzari

CHRISTMAS PARTY, POST APOCALYPSE 

Around the ankles of wire-frame reindeer, 
white plastic bags drift in flurries across the lawn. 

Toilet paper pulp melts into milky patterns 
on the ground. An upturned sink connects to cold night. 

On the front door in lipstick: Welcome!
Grab a rations bag and help yourself! 

Inside, rows of ramshackle beach chairs fold out 
like nutcrackers, offering their laps to any body that made it. 

In the corner, a pile of pellucid sacks–Rations:
a dented cup, napkin, a plastic spork. 

Beneath an EXIT sign, holly red and blinking,
the refreshment table glows:

A nativity of matches, muscle relaxer, 
one liter of Coke, two bottles of whiskey.

Stacked high, a pyramid of Ramen cups
teeter like a marionette on invisible string. 

A row of miniature houses wink orange light
through cracked ceramic windows.

On the dance floor, cockroaches 
scatter like dropped candies–festering, festive. 

The scene’s a blur of androgyny: 
ragbag outfits, blunt haircuts, 

black eyes–lined or shined, 
utilitarian vanity, no given fucks.

Swaying above it all, Guinness Record 
Girl for World’s Longest Legs: 

beneath life's crushing load,
an angel dropping low. 

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Talia Pinzari is a poet and public relations director from New England based in Austin, Texas. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in Salamander Magazine, SWWIM Every Day, Berkeley Poetry Review, Lily Poetry Review, Pangyrus, The Museum of Americana, Ibbetson Street, Mulberry Literary and elsewhere.